Replace
by Little Blue Owl
Summary: Nancy Drew's life goes through a long series of changes when Frank Hardy meets her before Ned Nickerson does. F/N, probably some other pairings. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

Replace

Disclaimer- I do not own Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys. Enjoy!

What if you were that old and broken toy, sitting in the attic, where everyone remembers you and claims to love you, but nobody bothers to take you downstairs and play with you, buying new and improved toys instead?

What if you were the television show that had its run, but when it finished, everyone forgot all you characters and what happened, and your time slot on tv was filled by something that everyone likes more?

You are replaced.

What if people were replaced? What if someone didn't bump into you on the street, or you never had those mutual friends that introduced you to each other? What if someone else positioned their self right where you ought to be, and you watched from a few feet away? What if you didn't remember anything, but you always wanted to meet them?

Except, your spot has been taken.

What if Ned Nickerson's spot was already taken?

What if Frank Hardy filled that spot?

-

"My name is Nancy Drew. I should be on that list. My room was reserved by a Marion Hartstadder?" a young woman said.

"Ah! Here you are ma'am. Here's your key, and the front desk phone number is in your room should you need anything," the hotel clerk said to her.

"Thank you," she responded kindly, walking up to the stairs to reach the floor of her room.

About the same time as Nancy climbed the stairs, two young men about her age approached the same clerk.

"We have a room reserved," the younger one said.

"Name please?" the clerk said patiently.

"Oh, Frank and Joe Hardy? A Miss Marion Hartstadder reserved it for us, if that helps," the elder brother put in.

The clerk scrolled down the list of reservations. 'Strange,' she thought. 'The same Marion Hartstadder? Oh, wait, isn't she the one with the stolen diamond necklace? Of course, that explains it. The woman is filthy rich. These are probably detectives she hired. They look so young, though. Must be very good at what they do. Marion's a sweet woman, but never kids when it comes to jewels.'

"Ah, here we are, boys!" the woman in her mid-twenties said. She looked up to see them ruffling through their pockets, making sure nothing was stolen. Detectives, alright. "You two detectives?" she asked breezily, softly laughing.

"Yep. How did you know?" the younger, blond boy replied.

"Pocket checking," the clerk answered, holding out their room key.

"You sure have seen everything," the older boy answered. "Thanks," he said as he took the key.

"Have a nice stay!" she laughed, watching them walk away.

-

"Well, here I am!" Nancy said cheerfully, walking down the hallway on the fourth floor.

She was looking to the left for her room number, and completely missed the two boys coming the opposite way. The three landed in a dazed heap of the red carpeting.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, are you okay?" the young detective said to the two boys regaining their balance in front of her.

"Oh, don't worry about us, we're fine," a young man with dark brown-black hair said, turning to face her slowly. "Are you o-" he cut off.

Nancy turned around to look at the boys for the first time, wondering why the one speaking had stopped. There was one younger-looking boy with messy blond hair and bright blue eyes trying to pick up his suitcase. The young man who had been talking was about Nancy's age. He had dark hair and eyes and was certainly not short of looks.

"Why'd you stop? Are you okay?" the strawberry-blonde girl asked him.

"Oh, I'm fine. I'm just worried that I may have, uh, injured a pretty girl like you," he rushed.

"Oh, no, I'm perfectly fine, no need to worry. My name's Nancy Drew, by the way," she responded sweetly.

"Frank Hardy," the teenager said. "This is my younger brother Joe."

"We're ameteur detectives," Joe piped up.

"Me too," Nancy mused. "What room are you boys staying in?"

"Room four-thirty-one," Joe Hardy told her, walking up to the two others.

"Funny, I'm room number four hundred thirty-two," Nancy said happily.

"I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of you then. I look forward to it. It was nice meeting you, by the way," Frank said.

"You too," Nancy said, walking to her room.

'Funny,' she thought. 'Detectives, too huh? I wonder if those were the two boys Marion told me I would be working with. I could definitely have worse partners to work with,' she reflected with a smile, walking into a room that changed her life.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: The plots and character form Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys are not mine.

AN: God, this is overdue. I'm sorry. I'll blame my procrastination tomorrow.

Replace, chapter two

'Ding!'

A sharp bell sounded in Marion Hartstadder's house and carried down to her spot in the most airy office of the house. She'd been thinking a lot lately about everything that had gone recently, including her recent break up, grandmother's death, and the stolen necklace. The girl had suffered through quite a bit, yet she remained upbeat and positive.

Marion got up quickly and went across the vast mansion to reach its front door, where the doorbell was rung once again.

'Ding!'

Marion opened up the door. Waiting at its steps was the detective, who was helping her with getting her diamond necklace back. Drew... Nancy Drew, that was it. She was glad, for she had become rather impatient, which was not unusual, to see her necklace again.

NDHB

"Hi, Mrs. Hartstadder" Nancy said. "Have you found any sort of evidence?" As she hadn't, Marion said no and let Nancy in to discuss the case. Nancy noted she found the large house to be a quite comfortable place. It was in the suburbs of Seattle, and even when rainy, the place was beautiful, with vast gardens, endless sitting rooms and offices, beautiful windows, and art at every corner.

It wasn't any wonder that someone chose this house to steal from, but why that necklace? Nancy thought. As she pondered over the thought, discussing some vague ideas with Marion, the doorbell suddenly sounded again.

"That must be your case partners," the young woman said. "I'll go let them in and give you some time to think peacefully, without me yabbering on about my stupid theories."

Nancy laughed and assured her that her theories weren't bad and that she certainly hadn't minded a second person to discuss with. But as she tried to think, she kept getting distracted thinking about Frank and Joe Hardy. She was anxious to see those boys again. She'd never met anyone so similar to her, and was eager to learn more about them. Nancy even found herself wondering if they were thinking the same thing.

NDHB

Joe Hardy walked up to an intricate doorway. "This must be her," he said to his older brother, shuffling his feet around on the doormat as the wind shook the tree leaves around.

"Well, the address is right. I wonder if Nancy's here already," Frank replied. It was not hard to see the glint of eagerness in his eyes. Frank, inexperienced with girls as he was, was terrible at hiding when he liked one.

'Yeah, you couldn't take your eyes off of her yesterday,' Joe thought, but knew that a smart remark like that wouldn't exactly boost his brother-status, and it was already low enough from all his other teasing.

Frank could be touchy and oblivious, but other than that he was a pretty awesome sibling to have, Joe considered. At least he laughed at some of Joe's jokes and they could do stuff together without getting into arguments.

Frank was ringing the bell now, quick and antsy like he always was when he was thinking about a girl. He had done this on numerous occasions at home in Bayport or out on a case. Hopefully Nancy was oblivious, too, sometimes, because Frank could get a little… no, really awkward around girls, Joe thought.

After a moment, the young woman opened the wooden door and let them in.

NDHB

At just the simple sight of Nancy Drew's strawberry-blonde curls Frank's heart started racing.

"Nancy, this is Frank," Marion indicated to the elder boy; "and Joe." She indicated to his younger sibling. "Boys, this is Nancy Drew."

"Oh, we met yesterday evening at the hotel," Nancy said politely. "And I couldn't ask for better people to work with," she added, a gleam in her blue eyes Frank enjoyed seeing.

"That's fabulous. So, umm, to my necklace," Marion said.

"When did it disappear?" Joe asked. He was always one to come up with simple questions, but Frank couldn't complain, considering how many cases they'd solved by asking simple questions.

"Friday night. I was out at a restaurant with some of my friends that evening, and when I came home, my necklace was gone."

"When was the last time you _saw_ it?" Frank said inquisitively.

"Well, I saw it when I was getting ready to leave," Marion said thoughtfully. "I was putting my favorite bracelet on, and I saw it in my jewelry box.

"Can we see this box?" Nancy interjected. "I mean, could we see where it was held? The easier seen, the easier the target of theft."

Frank was watching Nancy carefully now. She said everything gaining speed, as though her mind was moving a mile a minute. He admired that about her. A quick thinker and a positive person would be a good person to work with, wouldn't it?


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Nancy Drew or the Hardy boys or any of the relating plotlines or characters.

AN: I am so sorry that it has been so long. Who knows when I actually typed this; all I know was that it was sometime last year. Anyway, silly fact! Marion's last name was inspired by the name of Leonard's last name on the Big Bang Theory. I don't really like that show too much, but I thought that the name worked well.

Replace, Chapter Three

"We believe," Nancy Drew started, "that your maid took the necklace. All other suspects had solid alibis. For instance, your maid, Martine Mitchell, was the only who would know you would be gone at the moment, plus she knew where you kept your jewelry. No one else knew you weren't home or how to open the jewelry box."

"Your maid would have simply have had to go into your room after she was sure you would be gone for a while, take the box from its spot in your closet, and take the necklace," Frank continued.

"We're only not sure where it is yet. We have our robber, the fingerprints match and there was no solid alibi for her, but the necklace could practically be anywhere," Joe finished.

Mario was relieved, but not entirely satisfied yet. "Alright. Keep going."

"Where does your maid live?" Nancy asked.

"Well," Marion said, "she lives in a little house down the road. It would probably be there, although it could be in the house, because she knows just about every nook and cranny in this place."

"So we should search the house and her place," Joe stated.

"We should get on to that. If we split up, we can search more space. Umm, I'll go with Frank, Joe could go with Marion," Nancy suggested.

"Sure," Frank said.

NDHB

"How long is this closet?" Frank asked, annoyed. What was it with girls and clothes, anyway?

"Well, if we want to find the jewelry, we have to look everywhere," Nancy said, "no matter how terribly large the guest room closet is."

Frank just grunted in response.

The searching continued in silence for a while, Nancy following a few steps behind Frank and shining her flashlight all around them while he had his pointed forward.

"Wait a second," Frank said.

"What is it?"

"I think I see something. It's shining over in the corner." Frank started to walk over to where he saw the glittering. "Yeah, look! Something is here, but it's shoved far under this chest. The space is too small for me to reach in it."

"I'll try," Nancy offered, sticking her hand in the crack between the chest and the ground. She groaned in frustration when her hand wouldn't fit, and took out a pencil from her shoulder bag, shoving it in far to reach the shining object.

A moment later, she cried out, "I found something!" She grabbed the object from the pencil and pulled it up for Frank to see.

"It's the necklace," Frank said, admiring Nancy's work. "We should go back and tell Marion and Joe we found it."

"I think you might be waiting a while to see them," a voice said from the door of the closet. The pair whipped around swiftly to see Martine Mitchell grasping a key in her hand triumphantly. "For detectives, you sure are stupid," she said, closing the door and locking them in the closet. "I'll be back for that necklace later," came through the door.

Frank ran over and jiggled the doorknob fiercely, trying to open it. He looked at the lock.

"You need a key to open it, and I don't have any lock picking tools with me," Frank said.

"Neither do I," Nancy sighed.

They tried to bang on the door and yell for help, but no one answered.

"We'll be stuck here for a while, since Joe and Marion aren't back yet," Frank said. "And who knows when they will be," he added with a moan.

"You're right." Nancy sighed. "Well, I guess we'll be waiting here, then."

"Well, we could talk," Frank suggested.

"We could," Nancy said. There was a pause for a while between the two.

"So, when did you start detective work?" Frank started awkwardly. He was mentally cursing himself but Nancy didn't seem to mind.

"When I was in grade school." She laughed. "I'd find lost supplies or someone's stolen cookie."

Frank laughed good-naturedly with her. "Yeah, me too. You know, that seems so silly in comparison to what we, I mean Joe and I, do now."

"It really does," Nancy said, her mouth breaking into a smile. "Look at us now, locked in a closet with a stolen priceless necklace." Frank laughed.

The conversation continued like that for a while, just with small-talk and story-telling. Just what he had hoped for.

NDHB

"Do you think we should go see how Frank and Nancy are? They haven't checked in for a while," Joe suggested.

"Sure," Marion said. "I really hope they've found my necklace by now. It was my favorite and my mother gave it to me when I was graduating high school."

"Yeah," Joe said, and the two walked down to the guest bedroom where Frank and Nancy were last.

"Are you guys in here?" Marion called out.

"Frank? Nancy?" Joe asked.

A loud noise came from the closet.

"What's that?" Joe asked, his eyebrows raising. "Sounds like it came from the closet." He and Marion rushed over to the closet, where they could hear Frank and Nancy calling for help.

"We're coming!" Marion said, picking her key out of the drawer in the bedroom

"Thank goodness!" Nancy cried when the door opened. "We thought we would be stuck in there forever."

"We found your necklace Marion, but after we'd gotten it out from where it was hidden, your maid locked us up in there. Here," Frank said, giving the young woman her necklace back.

"Thank you. But we had better go get Martine," Marion said. She was anxiously shifting her eyes to the door. They four then ran out of the room and through the hallways towards the front, all of them laughing about the absurdity of the situation.

NDHB

"So what did you do for an hour in that huge closet?" Joe asked curiously across the coffee shop table to the two other detectives. "Inspect some purses and pumps?" He grinned jokingly as Frank and Nancy rolled their eyes to each other.

"We talked. We figured you would never come and get us," Frank said. He took a drink of his coffee.

"We're much better acquainted now, I'd say," Nancy said to the boys. Frank laughed heartily.

"Well, it was kinda fun learning about you," Frank said.

"You too," Nancy giggled. "But right now, I'm just glad to be out of that closet."

"Agreed," Frank laughed.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, or any of the relating plots or characters.

Replace, Chapter Four

Nancy Drew drove her blue convertible car down the road to her friend George's house for George's cousin Bess' birthday party.

'I can't wait to see them again! We could catch up on the last two weeks while I was away,' she thought.

River Heights was a nice town, to say the least. There were gorgeous deep green trees and grass, with hills and blue lakes dotting the horizon. The sun shined brightly over the grass and reflected off of the light paint of Nancy's car. Her convertible slid gracefully down the road to the Fayne residence, where music was playing loudly.

Nancy parked on the driveway and scrambled out of her car towards the backyard, where the gate was swung open. Bess and George were chatting under the table umbrella. They were both wearing party dresses, which surprised Nancy. Dresses weren't exactly George's favorite fashion statement.

"Bess made me," George said hastily as she ran up to Nancy, with a half smile and a shrug.

"Don't worry!" Nancy laughed. "It looks great. So does your house. It's the perfect Summer party." Nancy smiled at her friends. "So, I've got lots to tell. I need to catch you guys up on what you missed." Bess smiled excitedly and George rolled her eyes at her cousin. It was nice to be home.

NDHB

Bess Marvin was going to need medical service immediately after hearing Nancy's story. Nancy Drew had a crush on a boy. Well, not exactly a crush, but she could definitely see the spark in Nancy's eyes when she talked about Frank Hardy.

It was a miracle practically.

Nancy was usually so straight-minded and focused but now she seemed to be pretty distracted. Her blue eyes stared into space like her thoughts were more important than anything else.

Yes, Nancy Drew most definitely had a crush on a boy.

When the party guests finally started arriving, the strawberry blonde finally snapped back out of her thoughts. The petite blonde watched as Nancy walked over to greet people like normal as she straightened out the skirt of her dress.

It wasn't until Ned Nickerson, a boy who lived down the street from the Fayne's house and went to the college nearby, came in that Bess noticed Nance daydreaming again.

NDHB

The tall brunette boy walked over to greet George and Bess as he watched Nancy muse to herself with interest.

"Happy birthday, Bess," Ned said as he walked up to the cousins. "How's life been, George?"

George, being far more into sports than Bess, which had actually caused the two to meet in the first place, chatted with Ned for a while. The boy didn't seem to be listening much. He just stared at Nancy for a while as she would go absently chat with people or get lost in her thoughts.

"Well," George said after a long conversation about football, "I'll let you go meet the other guests."

Ned graciously accepted this finish as a time to go talk to the mystery girl he had been watching.

NDHB

Nancy said hello to most of the other guests that night, but her never-ending thoughts kept her into a sort of dreamy state. Her newest case had been on her mind mostly, but she couldn't shake the thought of the two boys that she had met. They were the most amazing people she'd ever met. They were smart and clever, just like her, and they were nice, too.

She only wished she knew them better.

She looked down at her left wrist. Their phone numbers rested there.

"Keep in touch, Nancy," Frank had said.

Suddenly someone was right in front of her.

"Hi," he said. Nancy looked up to see him. He was a handsome boy with light brown hair and chocolatey eyes. "I'm Ned."


End file.
